Spinning reels generally have a reel main body, a rotor which is supported on the reel main body so that the rotor is free to rotate, and a spool around which a fishing line is wound. The rotor has a first arm and second arm which are installed facing each other on opposite sides of a rotating shaft, bail supporting members which are mounted on the tips of the respective arms so that the bail supporting members are free to pivot, and a bail which is installed between the bail supporting members. This bail adopts either a line releasing position or a line retrieving position by pivoting together with the bail supporting members. Furthermore, a line roller which guides the fishing line is installed on the tip of one of the bail supporting members.
In such a spinning reel, the bail is pushed over into the line releasing position during casting. Then, when the fishing line is to be taken up after casting, the bail is returned to the line retrieving position. When the handle is turned with the bail in the line retrieving position, the fishing line is taken up around the outer circumference of the spool while being guided by a line roller positioned on the attachment end of the bail.
In spinning reels of the type described above, the bail supporting members are mounted on the outer-circumferential sides of the respective arms. In the case of such a construction, a large space is required between the rotor and the fishing rod in order to prevent the bail supporting members mounted on the arms from contacting the hand holding the fishing rod during the rotation of the rotor. However, in cases where the rotor is thus installed at a distance from the fishing rod, the distance between the handle position and the fishing rod is increased, so that the moment acting on the fishing rod when the handle is operated is also increased. Furthermore, if the radius of rotation of the bail supporting member on the side where the line roller is mounted is large, it becomes difficult to achieve the proper balance during rotation. In addition, when the bail supporting members are pushed over into the line releasing position during casting, the resulting state is such that the fishing line tends to become entangled with the bail supporting members.
Accordingly, there are reel constructions in which the first bail supporting member on which the line roller is installed is mounted on the inner circumferential side of the corresponding arm as indicated in Japanese Utility Model Application Kokai No. 4-12864, etc. However, even in the case of such reel constructions, the line roller projects to the outside when the bail is pushed over into the line releasing position, so that entanglement of the line cannot be sufficiently avoided.
One object of the present invention is to reduce the incidence of line entanglement during casting, and also to prevent an imbalance during rotation, in a spinning reel in which a line guiding part is installed on the tip of one of the bail supporting members.
Another object of the present invention is to make it possible to reduce the incidence of line entanglement, and to reduce the overall size of the reel.